Welcome to the companion Web site for the book Effortless Flex 4 Development, written by Larry Ullman and published by New Riders in July 2010 (ISBN 0-321-70594-7). Beside the handful of pages dedicated to this edition of this book, there’s plenty of other content on LarryUllman.com that you might be interested in. Use the “Post Categories” links above to browse by general topic.
You can download the code for the book using the link below. If you have any questions or problems, I’d recommend using the book’s corresponding support forum, where you’ll get the fastest answer.
And now, the marketing!
Server-side developers learn how to leverage Flex 4 to provide a rich client-side experience using Effortless Flex 4 Development
First the Web was all static content (HTML). Then, as more was expected of sites, server-side technologies like PHP became necessary. But now Rich Internet Applications (RIA) put a lot of the functionality back in the Web browser, so a server-side technology alone will no longer suffice. Developers who have been doing server-side work for years need to broaden their horizons to provide a rich client-side experience. Enter Effortless Flex 4 Development by bestselling author Larry Ullman.
Flash-Flex is a powerful duo for providing a rich, client-side experience. The first third of this book covers the fundamentals of creating Flex apps. The second third is about getting, displaying, validating, and sending data: locally, remotely, and from the user. All server-side code in this book is PHP, and this data-centric view and larger support for PHP is a key focus in Flex 4. This second part of the book distinguishes it from the Adobe Press title Flex Training from the Source and other existing titles. The last third is about rounding out the know-how for full application development.
Taking advantage of what Flex 4 has to offer, developers can quickly learn how to create RIAs, some of which interact with PHP scripts running on the server. Adobe has open-sourced Flex and made its SDK freely available, so it is becoming more attractive to developers who prefer open-source projects over commercial ones. Flex is geared towards developers (whereas Flash is for designers, and Flash Catalyst is in between). The book will use Flash Builder (but not Flash or Flash Catalyst), and it will also talk about non-Adobe ways to develop. Since the author is writing this book as a developer/programmer for other developers/programmers (as opposed to a designers), there is a predominance of how-tos and real-world practices.
Audience
The author is writing this book as a developer/programmer for other developers/programmers (as opposed to a designers). The readers would include any of the following: those already using a server-side technology like PHP; those already doing Rich Internet Applications using JavaScript/Ajax; those already using Flex 3 or earlier; and those who don’t fit in the other categories but are curious about Flex.
Downloads
Every example application from the book is now available in the following download. Currently I’ve organized the code by chapter and example within each chapter. To minimize the download, I’ve only included unique elements: custom MXML files and assets. Everything else, such as the HTML template, can be generated by your Flash Builder application or using the sources found within the Flex SDK. I acknowledge this may not be the best way to go about this, so let me know if you’d like me to prepare the code in a way that makes better sense and usability for you (in part I choose this route because I don’t want to assume everyone is using Flash Builder). The folder of code also includes one SQL document which has the commands used to create the databases in Chapters 8 and 9.
Complete Code
flex4_code.zip (729 KB, last modified 06/19/2010)
Just purchased your text. I just found out how interesting and I guess flexible PHP is. I like your emphasis of PHP as the back end. I have always been a Flash Builder 4 proponent, bit I am not not an expert in any of these. After going through your text I hope to be able to use Flash Builder and PHP very effectively. Are you ever going to do a Flex/PHP book using Flash Catalyst that is geared toward how the small business (mom and pop sole proprietor operation with a small technology budget as an example) could leverage this new technology to enhance their operations. Is there any reason why this market has not been addressed yet? Everything today is written from an enterprise point of view. And we know that 80% of the businesses are small businesses. There might be a demand for this if marketed and communicated properly. I am always approached by theses entrepreneurs who is interested in improving their operations with this new technology, I am just not that versed in it as yet. However, I am working toward it.
Hello Jerry. Thanks for your interest in the book. As for Flex/PHP+Flash Catalyst, I don’t have any plans right now to do that combination as a book. But I don’t actually see Flash Catalyst in the same way that you do. Why do you think that Flash Catalyst is for small businesses on a limited budget? And are you therefore of the mind that Flex is for enterprises and not for small businesses? Anyway, hope you like the book!
I am Chinese and your fans,My English is poor. Recently I have read your new book “effertless flex4″,in chapter 9, I have a problem.You use flex4 datamanager,I think this tools is very powerful.The data Synchronization client and Server.But zhe Itemrendder checkBox seem cant be clicked right.. When I cancel the checkBox,I click anywhere,the checkbox will be checked again.I dont know how to solve this problem, is this adobe bug?Looking forward to your guidance
Hello and thanks for the nice words. And certainly your English is better than my Chinese. This kind of question is really much better suited for the support forums, as the bold note above the comment form suggests.
Larry..I just got your book Effortless Flex 4. Seems to be a very good book.
I wanted to try some of your examples, but am not sure how to install your examples wth FB 4. I would appreciate some instructions on how to intstall your samples when using the FB 4.
Thanks,
Daniel
Thanks for the interest in the book and for the question. I was very torn on how to handle the download-able code. I don’t want to assume (or force) everyone to use FB, which is why I didn’t export each example as a FB project. My thinking is twofold. First, you could just follow the steps in the book and create the code from scratch. Since FB does so much of the work for you, this isn’t as tedious as a programming text would be. Second, if you don’t like that idea, I would create each new project in FB, then open the corresponding code in a text editor, and cut and paste as you see fit. I’m open to suggestions, though!
Where is gateway.php? It appears to be missing from your downloadable tutorial files, making a number of your lessions impossible to follow. thanks.
The gateway.php script comes with whatever tool you’re using for the AMF-PHP interaction. For example, AMFPHP or Zend_AMF.
I’m doing mostly .NET and Adobe Flex has excellent support for SOAP webservices which makes it a bliss to develop with .NET/Flex conjuction.
Thanks Larry for this nice book Effortless Flex 4 Development. While I was following in chapter 5 and doing the examples, I have errors on the pseudo e-commerce calculator which says Access of undefined property product and also the same thing to the quantity in the script block section. What should I do?
Please post your code and relevant details in the book’s support forum.
Great Book. I have gone through it and finished all the examples given. I was just wondering that since Zend framework which has Zend_AMF can be integrated to YII will it be possible to use Zend_AMF in my YII framework projects?. If this is possible how can you go around.
Thank you very much. Good question about Zend_AMF and Yii. I suspect it’s possible (most things are possible), but offhand I’m not sure what the solution is. I suspect one would have to modify the Zend_AMF gateway so that it creates an object of the appropriate Yii model. Or, better yet, create a Yii controller that can act as the gateway.
I just finished the first two chapters of your book and I’m very impressed. I look forward to the rest of the book, especially working with PHP as a back-end for a client-server project I have in mindl. Just wanted to say, excellent book!
Thanks, Jamie. Very nice of you to say. Hope you continue to like it!
Hi, Larry.
I think that Jquery have the same function like the adobe flex.
How you think?
Yes and no. JavaScript can be used to create Rich Internet Applications and so can Flex. There are strengths and weaknesses to both approaches, though.
Hi
Just struggled to get the remote procedure call right for the past two days, using RemoteObject of flex4.5 and amfphp. It finally worked out, but not exactly the same as chapter 9. The “source” and “destination” property of RemoteObject should be the same, and although client and server are all on my pc, I still need to add crossdomain.xml to my http root directory, which is quite sttrange. Maybe Adobe changed things a little from 4.0 to 4.5
Kudos for figuring that out and thanks for sharing your solution.
Hi Larry,
Am thinking of learning how to develop apps for a smartphone.
Does your Flex4 book cover this?
Thanks, Eric (Necuima)
Hey Eric. Thanks for the question. No, the book does not target Flex for mobile apps, as that wasn’t possible when I wrote the book. It’s not hard to figure out once you know Flex, though, with the available documentation and what’s built into FB 4.5.